Harry woke up first again, and looked around the room; it was the room he had spent so much time in at Hogwarts, but it never had so many people in in, including female people, including GINNY! It was almost unbelievable that Ginny was sleeping in the next bed, and almost as hard to believe that two short and yet frantically busy days ago he was fighting for his life, dueling Tom Riddle. Harry got himself cleaned and dressed. He woke Ginny, who again pulled him into a big hug and kiss.

“There should be fewer people today, so it should be easier” Harry told her as they got ready for their day.

Harry hoped it would be easier. In all the stories he read once the hero killed the villain everything got easier, and “they lived Happily Ever After.” What else could happen?

Ginny went into the loo and got dressed. She thought of the ‘touch of lust’ spell and her promise to herself not to use it every day. Ginny knew she should not be worried about Cho, but she was. ‘Just one flick’ thought Ginny, but then she mentally scolded herself again. ‘I’m stronger than that! And I’m not that worried, am I?’ Ginny was really nervous about using the spell at all, and knew the dangers of using it too much but all those letters made her very upset. ‘I’ll use it tomorrow’ she promised herself firmly and left the loo without using it.

When they got to the common room Harry sat down and pulled Ginny into his lap. “I need a little good snogging, Happily Ever After Girl,” Harry said.

Ginny gave a small shy smile at the Happily Ever After reference, but eagerly worked on the snogging, feeling pleased that Harry wanted to snog her, even without the spell today. After about 10 minutes of snogging Harry looked at Ginny and said “I just can’t see you as one of those helpless fairytale princesses.”

“I never said I was wanted to be one of that type of princess” said Ginny. “I always figured we’d take down Voldemort and the Death Eaters together. That was what was so hard not being with you. Not being able to fight with you. Some of those princess stories are so stupid. I never wanted you to rescue me. I wanted to fight with you!”

“My tough Ginny” said Harry, with a big smile on his face he told her how impressed he was with how well she had stood up to the steady stream of people retrieving their dead the previous day.

“I wasn’t very tough yesterday” said Ginny, frowning. “I felt terribly helpless a lot of the time. I want to be strong like my brothers.”

“I’m very glad you’re not one of Ron’s brothers” Harry enthusiastically exclaimed.

“I’m still a girl” said Ginny, using her hands to show that she had feminine curves.

“A very pretty girl, very sexy” said Harry.

Harry though that he should just be able to enjoy being with Ginny. Nothing was that simple. She wanted sex, wanted to marry him right away. Ginny wanted to be grown up right now. Harry at 17 felt almost old; too much had happened to him. But Ginny deserved another year of school. What was he going to do?

There were another six owls waiting for them around the common room; Ginny quickly sorted them, watching them fly from her hands into the magic file, trying hard not to show how terrified she was of the letters from witches wanting HER Harry, and went back to snogging Harry.

After maybe a half an hour Ron, Hermione, Percy and Arthur came down the stairs. Ron loudly said, “Dad, we’ve found Harry and Ginny!” and they quickly got up, just to see that Arthur was the first one down stairs and had been watching them. The family ate breakfast together, joined by the Appledorn and Bayleaf families.

A little before 8:00 AM Arthur left for the ministry, opening the floo once again.

The first one through the floo from the Ministry today Andromeda Tonks, carrying Teddy Lupin and a bulging baby bag. Teddy was wailing, and Andromeda was beside herself. “No one is telling me anything! What has happened to Nymphadora!? What has happened to Remus!? ALL ANYONE SAYS IS THEY ARE SO SORRY. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON!”

“Oh Andromeda,” Harry said. “No one told you they were killed in the battle?”

“WHO WAS KILLED? ONE OF THEM IS DEAD?” yelled Andromeda.

“They are both dead” said Harry sadly.

Andromeda already had a harried look on her face, but at this she looked terrified and scared and numb all at the same time. “Oh, Oh, O my, Harry, Ginny, can you take care of Teddy” she said as she shoved Teddy into Harry’s hands, dropping a bag with Teddy’s stuff at Harry’s feet. “O my, O my, I have to see them. This is horrible. What am I going to do?! How can I take care of Teddy? No! No! NO!”

Rosemary Bayleaf started to lead a wailing Andromeda out of the room.

Ginny went up to Harry and said “Hold his head, Harry. Little babies can not hold their own head. Good” as Harry was cradling Teddy’s head.

Harry turned to Teddy and said in a quiet and gentle voice, “Hi little boy. Hi Teddy. Hi. I’m your godfather Harry Potter. I lost my parents when I was little too. It’s a tough deal, but with a lot of love you can make it. I’m your godfather. I’ll love you. I’ll love you.” Harry kissed Teddy, and gently rocked him, being careful to hold his head. Harry kept up the gentle talking, and Teddy stopped crying.

Ginny looked at Harry in amazement. Nothing makes most girls feel better about her guy than seeing him being so good with children. Ginny felt all warm and squishy inside.

Andromeda stopped and looked back at Harry. Ginny came over to her and Andromeda said in amazement, “Harry got Teddy to stop crying!” Then she wailed “No mommy, no daddy, no money, no nothing. Take care of Teddy, please.” Andromeda was in tears, with a panicky look on her face.

“Harry and I will take care of Teddy” said Ginny.

“Thank you, Ginny” said Andromeda, who was by this time visibly shaking. “I feel like such a failure as a grandmother. Who’ll nurse the baby? I can’t … its all gone … they’re both dead?” At this she started to cry again.

Harry was still holding Teddy, but he was saying, “I smell something, Teddy. Do you need your nappies changed?”

Ginny looked at Harry and inquired “Wet?”

“A lot worse than wet” Harry replied, pointing to some brown stuff leaking out from the edge of the nappy.

Ginny looked over to Rosemary Bayleaf in panic, waving her over. Together they approached Harry and Teddy. “Can I just Scourify him?” a worried Ginny asked.

“Not a baby!” Rosemary replied in horror. “Although in this case” she said looking at the mess “there is a variation of that spell to get us started. Take off the nappy, Harry.” Harry gingerly took off the filthy nappy, brown goo leaking all over. “Scourify Minimus” Rosemary said twirling her wand. Most of the mess was gone; at least it wasn’t running all over any more.

“I hope there are wipes in the bag” said Rosemary. “You really are better off finishing the bottom with wipes.”

Ginny looked into the diaper bag. There were Mother Minerva’s Magical Nappies (spells to clean and re-use),

Harry replied “I thought you had six brothers?” Ginny looked exasperated. “Older brothers. I certainly never changed any of their nappies. I’ve changed a couple of baby girl’s nappies when they visited mom, but this is my first experience with boy’s nappies or messy nappies.”

Harry and Ginny were feeling real proud that they had changed Teddy when, as he was lying on the clean nappy but just before they got the nappy on him Teddy wet, squirting both Harry and Ginny. Harry and Ginny both just suppressed a scream, while Rosemary just giggled.

Rosemary apologized saying “I had three girls. They don’t squirt you like that.”

Harry and Ginny looked at each other, both sighed deeply, and they cleaned up the mess again, Harry careful to keep the second nappy over the pertinent part of Teddy so he would not squirt them again.

Ginny finished putting the second clean nappy on and took the dirty wipes and nappies to the bathroom, where she used the proper spells and got them cleaned. She then dug into Teddy’s bag, got a bottle, and got it ready.

Harry gave Teddy to Ginny, and she started to feed a very hungry little boy. Teddy did not like the bottle much, but kept grabbing for her breasts. Eventually Ginny got some milk into him. When he was done she found a baby carrier that held Teddy close to her and put it on, put Teddy in it. Teddy promptly fell asleep. His hair had been purple when Andromeda brought him, but it was black and looked just like Harry’s now, except where Harry’s hair stuck up Teddy had a shock of Weasley red hair sticking up.

“Harry,” Ginny said “Andromeda would like us to take care of Teddy for a little while. Would that be alright with you?”

Harry answered “That would be great!” He thought of the ten years he spent with the Dursleys, and how horrible that was. There was no way he was going to let his godson suffer. He and Ginny would take care of Teddy.

Just as Ginny was walking back to the fireplace, Teddy in the carrier she was wearing, another witch was coming through the floo. She went right over to Harry and said, “Thank you for all you have done for us Harry, and” turning to Ginny and Teddy, who with Harry’s hair and the flaming red patch looked uncommonly like Harry and Ginny’s child, “thank you too, Mrs. Potter.” She gave Ginny a squeeze and patted Teddy on the head, and sadly went off with Rosemary Bayleaf.

“Well, you wanted to grow up. How does it feel to be Mrs. Potter with a month old baby?” said Harry.

“And I didn’t even have to go through 9 months of pregnancy,” Ginny grinned, but then in a much more serious tone, “I am really worried about Andromeda.”

Molly came out to talk to Harry and Ginny. “How are you doing with Teddy? He seems to be to be much more content than when he first arrived.”

“Oh mother,” Ginny gushed. “You should have heard Harry talk to Teddy. It was so sweet. And Teddy calmed right down. We changed dirty nappies, that’s the first time I’ve ever changed a baby boy or a messy nappy. And fed him. He just feels so good sleeping on me like this.”

Harry got a big grin on his face, and said, “Is this your Happily Ever After, Gin. Not your hero Harry Potter marrying you in a big wedding the day after the battle, but dumping his godson on you two days after. I love you, Ginny! Mrs. Weasley, I guess we can take care of Teddy for a while.”

Molly looked a little flustered at this exchange. Harry and Ginny did look like proud and, she had to admit, competent parents. Like a lot of the past couple of days, this was way too much way too fast, and not a lot that she could about it.

Molly then said “Andromeda is curled up in bed. I do not think she has had any good sleep since Nymphadora and Remus left. You may have Teddy for a while, quite a while. I think Andromeda has had a breakdown. I don’t think she can take care of Teddy right now. Ask one of the women who are mothers if you need any help. Ask Rosemary. I am sure she and the girls would be glad to help.”

Molly had tears in her eyes as she was saying this, like Andromeda having a breakdown was too much, and then Molly left to get some sleep.

Molly went up to the dorm room that had become their home. Andromeda was curled up in one bed, whimpering, shaking. Charlie was sleeping in another, Lee Jordan in another. One of the beds that had been turned into double beds had George, and Angelina Johnson was in the bed next to George. George was sleeping, but Angelina was awake, and she came over and gave Molly a hug. Molly had really not seen a lot of George and Charlie last night but when she did Angelina and Lee were were with them.

Molly dropped into the bed Arthur had been sleeping in; the best they could do for a week or two was sleep in the same bed, even if they slept in it during different times. Molly was so tired she quickly fell asleep.

Ginny looked at Teddy sleeping in her arms. He had been pawning at her breasts, and she knew her mother had nursed her and all of her brothers. Ginny thought of the Mother Minerva’s magical nursing bra. ‘Everybody treats me like a little girl’ she thought. ‘If I nurse Teddy they’ll have to treat me like an adult mother and not child. Harry will see I am grown up. Maybe mum will realize I’m old enough. Besides mum thinks babies should nurse.’

“Mom thinks nursing is far better for babies than feeding them with bottles” said Ginny to Harry.

“Tonks is dead” said Harry. “I wish we could do something, anything for Teddy. He’s my godson so I guess I am responsible for him, especially if Andromeda is having a hard time.”

Ginny got the coy look in her face that indicated she wanted something from Harry, and said “Would you mind if I nursed the baby? Teddy is used to nursing, not taking milk from a bottle.”

Harry looked at Ginny’s breasts with a quizzical look. “I have the equipment” she said, raising her hands up towards her breasts.

“I’ve noticed” said Harry, getting red in the face. “Sure, if you think that is best for Teddy. I was an orphan myself, and if we can make Teddy happier I am all for it.”

Ginny looked at the Mother Minerva’s order form, and at Teddy, and at Harry. “poor little Ginny Weasley!” She’s show them. She thought a couple of minutes, then said sweetly to Harry, “Could Kreacher get some supplies from Mother Minerva for us, please.”

Harry called Kreacher and said, “Kreacher, can you please get supplies from Mother Minerva for Ginny. Get anything she wants.”

Ginny then told Kreacher get some formula, and one of the Mother Minerva’s Magical Nursing bra’s in her size, no, two of the Nursing bra’s. She was not sure how many times she could get away with something like this.

“Look, Harry” said Ginny about 9:30. On the list were Frank, Alice and Dennis Creevey. At 9:40 they came through the floo, Dennis’s parents looking very dazed. Seeing Frank and Alice Creevey it was obvious why Colin and Dennis were small. Frank was about 5’4”, and Alice was just a little over 4’10”, almost 2” shorter than Ginny. They were both thin small boned but good looking people.

“Hi, Harry” said Dennis.

“I am so sorry about Colin” said Harry.

“Nobody blames you for this war” said Frank. “We were in hiding this last year, and I helped Colin make the fake ID’s. I’m a professional photographer, well I used to be a milkman but I’ve had some books that give me royalties, good royalties. Colin and Dennis told me all about you and the war.”

Mary Lou Dippet had come up, hauling her little sister behind her, and she said “I’m sorry about Colin, Dennis. He was so nice, such a good person.”

Dennis said “Hello Mary Lou. How is your brother, Dan?”

Mary Lou was holding back tears as she said “Dead too, lying right next to Colin.” She took a deep breath and then said, almost shouted, with tears streaming down her face “and my dad is right next to Dan and he is dead too and the death eaters killed my mother two years ago and we don’t have anything and no place to go!”

She looked at the Creevey family with a very forlorn and lost look, and then she said “I can show you where the bodies are. I want to go back to Danny and daddy again anyway.”

Ginny went with them, (leaving a sleeping Teddy with Harry) and 10 minutes later Ginny was back. A half hour later Dennis and his father Frank were back and came over to the floo. “We have to go back to the ministry” said Dennis, and they left through the floo.

About half an hour later they noticed Alice Creevey at the tables with Rosemary and the children, and Mary Lou and Ann Marie were with her.

A little later Dennis came back through the floo alone. “My father is probably coming back with your father” he told Ginny.

Mid-morning the Daily Prophet finally came out.

Daily Prophet

Monday May 4, 1998

Casualties of the war.

The list inside should be almost complete.

Arthur Weasley new head of department of magical law enforcement. Auror department badly depleted. Call goes out to the French and American Aurors..

Just after the Prophet came Ginny also got her Mother Minerva’s Magical Nursing bra’s. Teddy woke up, and Harry and Ginny changed him. The Bayleaf girls were fascinated by the baby, and the Appledorn boys were more interested than they let on. Ginny showed Rosemary the Magic Nursing bra, and they went into a private room so Ginny could put one on. Rosemary did some magical alterations to Ginny’s robe, putting in clever slits to give a baby access to her breasts while still maintaining her modesty, and showed Ginny how to get Teddy to latch on, how to hold him so he could nurse, how to take him off so he could burp without exposing herself. Rosemary also took the time to teach Ginny the ‘Scourify Minimus’ spell.

The first time Ginny nursed the baby it was in private, and she was glad she was not on public display. The second time she did get Teddy fed in public without too many problems, although she was glad she was next to Rosemary, who gave her some advice.

The 3rd time later that afternoon Ginny was able to nurse Teddy discretely and confidently. Ginny was sitting right next to Harry this time, and when Ginny was nursing Teddy Harry was looking at the two of them, the biggest smile on his face. “Harry has a smile that could light up a room’ Ginny thought. ‘It’s worth it nursing Teddy just to see that smile.’

“Thank you for doing this for my godson” Harry told Ginny for the first but by no means the last time. “I’m so proud of you and so grateful to you for doing this” Ginny just beamed; nursing Teddy like this felt good, and was so good for so many reasons. There was no question that Teddy liked nursing much better than the bottle. The other thing Ginny found out is that by mixing the formula with Tonk’s breast the breast milk was magically duplicated.

Harry was just dumbfounded. This was part of taking care of a baby he was totally unfamiliar with. He sort of knew women had breasts for a reason, but he could not remember ever seeing someone nursing before. Ginny also shared with Harry what Rosemary had told him, and he was certainly not used to a girl, his girl, talking about her breasts to him, and how good it felt when Teddy was nursing. Harry had to admit he was just a little envious of Teddy, although he was also embarrassed that he felt that way.

Early that afternoon one of the more awkward moments came. Mrs. Crabbe came to pick up her husband, a death eater who had gotten himself killed. (The 50, later raised to 57 after all the counting and counting 2 people who died of their wounds within the week, were all on the Hogwarts side. No one had a good count of death eaters and their allies, a much larger number. There were about 35 death eater witches or wizards, but of the evil creatures there was no count.) She wanted to know what had happened to her son Vincent.

Harry said that he had set a fiendfire to try and kill Ron, Hermione, Draco Malfoy and Goyle but only killed himself, and Harry thought that the fire had reduced everything to such fine ashes that there was no body to find. It was an extraordinarily tense and loud exchange, and eventually someone got Minerva and she escorted Mrs. Crabbe to get her husband and had her leave promptly.

Ginny went with Minerva; she had not gone into the room with the death eater bodies since the previous morning, and wanted to make sure she knew where it was and who was in it. There were two additional bodies, of the Carrows, that had not been there the day before. She was told by a student that the bodies were the Carrows; they had been beaten to a pulp, and a bloody beaters bat was by their side. The student said “I think that everyone who suffered under those two bastards had gotten a good hit at them.”

“Where were they yesterday?” asked Ginny.

“Hanging up in the dungeons” said the student. “Someone tightened the chains until their feet were off the floor, and students kept going in and hitting them. By this morning both were dead.”

“Does it feel better after hitting them?” asked Ginny.

“Not really” said the student.

Ginny took the bat, looked to make sure McGonagall had left the room, looked at her scar, and gave both of the bodies a whack. It really didn’t make her feel any better, just a little sick. She cleaned off the spattered blood and went back to Harry.

Later on in the day the mother of the Carrows came to pick up their bodies. Ginny looked at her and remembered the condition of the bodies. She remembered hitting them herself, and got a little sick to her stomach again. Ginny wished she had never hit the Carrows, that no one had battered them.

“Stupid bastards got selves killed” Mrs. Carrows said. “Tried to beat sense into em. Slow learners, too soft. Said not allowed permanent damage, although they did some. Everybody too soft. Should ave killed a few, do permanent damage. Ya need to do a little killin, like I done to my husbands. First one, killed him when he killed the baby. Needs ta beat kids but not kill em. Second one unhappy cause the baby not his. Twas his friends & he all got drunk n everybody doing everybody. Killed him afore he killed me or the kid. Stupid Bastards.”

A short time later she came striding back. “Musta got somebody real mad at em” she said. “Give em credit for that. Don want em. Bury em, burn em, beat em, iffen it makes you feel good do it. Don have any money foren that. Never had any money anyhow. Lifen not fair afore, no reason fur it being fair now.” She left out the floo.

The rest of the day went rather more smoothly than the day before. There were almost as many visitors, but fewer were people picking up dead bodies, and more were people on other errands. Harry still had to deal with a lot of people, and the only reason it was easier on him was that there were fewer people picking up their dead, and Harry was more used to it. Ginny was distracted enough by Teddy that the day went easier for her, although she was still in charge of the letters that Harry could not answer right away.

The other notable thing about the afternoon was about a third of the people thanked “Harry and Mrs. Potter.” Harry did not made a point of correcting people, although if he had a chance he let people know that Teddy was Teddy Lupin and that Harry and Ginny were not married (or not married yet.) Ginny for her part never tried to correct anybody. I’m not Mrs. Potter yet, she thought, but maybe by just not correcting people it will just sort of happen, people will think it is all right, they won’t treat me as too little and too young. Ginny was still terrified that someone would say they were too young and force … well, she didn’t know who could do what but it terrified her. Somehow her family worried her more than anyone else, especially mum and Ron. Neither of them wanted her to grow up.

Between answering the few urgent letters, talking to a couple of people from the ministry who needed his advice, and greeting people Harry was busy all day. Ginny did have a little free time, and when she had a moment she usually fretted over the letters from the witches wanting HER Harry. Some of them were very explicit, with photographs. Some of the pictures were of faces, but several were of entire bodies, some with the skimpiest of outfits on and one with nothing on at all. (There was no way Harry was going to see that picture; it was obscene!)

Ginny thought she was very cute. (She was!) She certainly had a bust line, and her mother said she was plenty big for a little 100 pound girl, bigger than average. Fleur was bigger on top, but Fleur was taller, just bigger everywhere. Some of these witches were huge on top, with narrow waists, some with big hips and some with tiny shapely little hips. Ginny's hips were certainly big enough, not tiny. Ginny knew Harry really did not want deal with the letters, or even to see them. They still made her very insecure. The one girl was starkers and she had huge breasts. There was no way Ginny could compete with that.

Late in the afternoon two names appeared on the list, John Brown and Armand Dutrey. When they came through the floo Harry asked “Are you Lavender’s father?” The one Harry asked nodded that he was, but immediately the two men walked, almost ran, towards the door.

Harry saw Minerva McGonagall about half an hour later, and asked her how Lavender was doing. Minerva said “I don’t know, Harry. Not well. She’s alive, that’s all I can say right now.”

Molly came downstairs about 5:30. Harry was sitting in a chair near the fireplace, quietly talking to Teddy. Ginny was lying down on a sofa that had appeared next to the fireplace. Rosemary went up to Molly and said, ‘your daughter and son-in-law are sure doing a good job of taking care of that baby”

Molly promptly said “They’re not married. Ginny will not be 17 until August!”

Rosemary said “Oh, I had no idea, Molly. They look so natural together.”

Molly answered back “Yes they do, and nothing would make me happier than to have Harry marry Ginny eventually and finally really be part of our family. He’s suffered so much loss in his life he deserves some happiness. It is just that they are so young. In some ways Harry is the oldest 17 year old I have ever known. He has had to grow up so fast. I wish we could get him some childhood back. And it is hard for a mother to see her children, especially a daughter, grow up so fast.”

Rosemary then volunteered “I thought I ought to tell you, Molly that Ginny got a Mother Minerva’s Magical Nursing bra and she has been nursing the baby. She is just a natural! She will make such a good mother.”

Molly looked both surprised and a little concerned and said “Merlin! Oh my. I’m not sure I’m ready for this. Thank you for telling me.”

Harry looked at Teddy and saw the mouth movements that indicated “I’m ready for some more food. So Harry brought the baby over to Ginny, who woke up from a brief nap, calmly reached into her robe and unfastened the bra, and had Teddy on her breast with a blanket discretely over her, showing nothing and looking like she had been doing it for weeks. Molly just shook her head. She went over and sat down next to Ginny. Ginny looked over at her mother and said, “Mum, how did you nurse the twins?”

Molly took a deep breath. She thought Ginny was going to ask for some advice about nursing Teddy. This was not a question she thought she was going to be asked. “It wasn’t that hard. You have two breasts. You just put one on each. Actually it was nice to sit or lie there with both twins …” got a kind off dreamy look in her face, looked at Ginny, looked at Harry standing there looking at both of them. Oh my, now what was she going to say, what was she going to do.

Harry rescued her by asking, “How is Andromeda doing?”

“I think she is still asleep.” said Molly, “She is an emotional wreck, and I don’t think it is just from lack of sleep. I am not sure she was ever a natural as a mother, and the thought of raising Teddy alone has got her in a full fledge panic. She doesn’t have any money either. It was hard when Ted died, and then to take care of a baby. She does not think she can. Tonks was the only one working, as an Auror, and she had to quit that job the last 3 months before the baby was born and was not yet back to work. We have given them food and I think Bill and Fleur gave them food and some money.”

Harry promptly and firmly said “He is my godson, and I’ll help. I’ve got money. There is no way my godson is going to be raised a pauper!”

Ginny said just as firmly “I’ll help too. Harry and I will help together.”

Molly was worried. She looked at Ginny and said “Babies have to be changed and fed in the middle of the night too. Once you have started nursing you can’t just stop and start. You’re going to be stuck with Teddy for a while.”

“I’m sure we can manage, mum.” Ginny said as she raised Teddy up and told Harry, “burp him, dear.” Harry gently put Teddy on a burp rag and tapped his back until an air bubble came up, and since he now seemed close to sleep held him gently talking to him. Ginny reached in and refastened the bra, gave her mother a self satisfied smile, and settled back into the sofa. Molly did not know if she should be happy that Ginny and Harry were doing so well with Teddy, or panic because Ginny was only 16 for goodness sake and here she was looking like she was married to Harry with a child. Molly was just very flustered.

About this time Andromeda came into the room. She came over and Ginny said “Mrs. Tonks, there are only two outfits of clothes in Teddy's bag. Can you get the rest of his clothes?”

Andromeda said in a small voice “he doesn’t have any more clothes.” She turned to Molly and said in a voice halfway between panic and tears “We’re going to starve! We don’t have anything.” Andromeda collapsed down on the floor, crying.

Molly took hold of Andromeda’s hands, pulled her up into a hug, and said “no one is going to let you starve.”

Harry said “Teddy is my godson, and I have plenty of money. I will make sure my godson and his grandmother are taken care of.”

Andromeda went over to Harry and hugged him, saying “thank you” over and over. She was shaking, and eventually Molly took her over to a sofa and sat down with her to try and comfort her. Andromeda eventually calmed down some, but just sat on the sofa with her head down, looking very sad. Molly came back to Harry and Ginny and said “the mental wounds can be harder to heal than the physical wounds. Fleur has talked to St. Mungo’s, and unfortunately there are plenty of people in much worse shape. We just need to take care of Andromeda as best we can for a while.”

Ginny looked in Teddy's bag for the Mother Minerva’s order form. There was a note on the order form saying you could owl for a catalog of baby clothes, so Ginny called for Fawkes and wrote a note asking for the clothing catalog.

Teddy was down sleeping at 7:00 PM, and Ginny and Molly went to see how many bodies were left. There were only 7 bodies left, only 2 students.

Ginny and Molly came back to where Harry was. Ginny looked at Harry and said “remember the little girl that I was comforting when you went to meet Riddle.”

“You were comforting her” said Harry. “How is she?”

“When we got back to Hogwarts castle something happened to her, like something inside was damaged or a delayed curse took hold. All of a sudden she said ‘tell mommy I love her, and I’ll give daddy a kiss for her’ and she died, right in my arms.”

“Oh Ginny” said Harry horrified that Ginny had to have the little girl die in her arms. “And her parents have not come for her yet?”

Ginny said “McGonagall said that her father was a Muggle who was killed. The boy next to her had his Muggle mother killed. Their mother and father were living in his house hiding out, and the two students met the summer before last. He was older and tried to protect her and was killed first. I think both were only children.”

Harry said “I hope their surviving parents are all right. I guess if your only child is dead nothing will make it all right. Too much tragedy. I just wish somehow we could have taken care of Riddle sooner!”

Bill came through the floo about 7:30. He said to Harry “if I am going to take care of these financial matters I need your authority, Harry. The Goblins and the ministry want me to do things that I need your permission to do.”

Harry said “all of the financial stuff is way over my head. What do I have to do?”

Bill had some parchments for Harry to sign. “We’re not done with this yet, Harry” said Bill “but this lets me get started.”

Arthur closed the floo again at 8:00 PM. He was also surprised when he saw Ginny and Harry with Teddy. Then he remembered one conversation that day when someone had commented on his son-in-law and grandson. He had been so shocked, but so much else was going on, that he just let the remark pass. Now he could see why someone would think Harry and Ginny were married and parents of Teddy. He shared this with the family at dinner.

Frank Creevey came back through the floo with Arthur, and went right over to the table where Alice, Dennis and the two Dippet girls were. Harry asked Arthur “what is going on with Frank Creevey? Why did he spend so much of the day at the Ministry?”

Arthur answered “Frank wanted to make sure that someone was going to take care of the Dippet girls. Everything is in so much chaos that there is no way those two little girls are a priority right now; we have lots of people homeless and starving and at least those little girls have a roof over their head and food to eat, here at Hogwarts. So Frank wanted to know what it would take for he and his wife to take them, and he came back with adoption papers. It seems that Dan and Colin were good friends, and Dennis and Mary Lou are in the same class and are really good friends.

Frank told me ‘if we let those little girls suffer Voldemort wins. There is no way Alice and I are going to sully the sacrifice of our son by letting more innocent children suffer. Besides, as Alice said, we have an extra bedroom now.’”

Arthur put his head in his hands as he sat down and said, “too many sad stories. Way too many.”

When they sat down for dinner Harry noticed that a lot of progress had been made in fixing up the great hall. When he was not occupied with the people coming through the floo or Teddy or comforting Ginny (who still needed a little comfort, especially with some of the more difficult or tragic deaths) Harry did have time to observe some of the repair. It was fascinated to watch. The repair went magically fast, which was not too surprising since Hogwarts was a magical place and there were a lot of Witches and Wizards working on the repair. The smell of dust was gone, and even where there were piles of rubble all the dust that had coated everything had magically been swept away.

Everybody congratulated Arthur on being made head of Magical Law Enforcement. Arthur told the assembled group that the department was in terrible shape, but they hoped to have help from North America and France soon. “We are not sure how we are going to pay for it. The Ministry’s finances are also in a terrible mess.”

Harry and Ginny were sitting next to each other taking care of Teddy, and Ron and Hermione were close but talking to each other, when Charlie came over and sat down next to them. “It’s easier taking care of dragons than girlfriends” said Charlie.

“What is going on?” asked Ginny.

“Angelina really liked the twins, and had gone out on double dates with both of them, usually George because Fred was checking out new girls, but if the twins dated a girl for the second time Angelina got Fred and George took the other girl out. And Angelina asked George what was going on, and George said that they had decided that if they were going to get married they both ought to at the same time, and they were looking for another girl. So she asked who was looking for another girl and he said both of them were, because they both loved her and if one of them fell for a different girl the other would take Angelina. And Angelina got real mad at Fred and George, and she is still sort of mad at George, but she doesn’t want to leave and sometimes they kiss and sometimes they cry and sometimes they fight and I would rather tend dragons.” Ginny looked at Harry and said “I can see Angelina’s point. I would not want to be the consolation prize for the other twin if one of them found someone to marry.” For the rest of the time they were at Hogwarts Angelina was at George’s side, usually working together, sometimes holding hands and sometimes arguing.

By 9:00 PM Harry and Ginny were ready to take Teddy up to the dorm room and try and get some rest.

Ginny turned a chair that was on her side of their beds into a crib for Teddy and put him down in the crib. Then she showed Harry the slits in the robes that Rosemary had put in, and how they were designed to allow her to nurse Teddy. She took off the robes; she had the same short shorts on, but on top was just wearing the Magic Nursing Bra. Without unfastening them she showed Harry where the flaps were on the front of the bra that let her nurse Teddy. Harry noticed that the bra did not hide the scar over her breast.

All this nursing and talk of breasts and showing Harry was driving him nuts. On the one hand he was very protective of his godson and Ginny, with a pride and protectiveness that was paternal and not sexy at all. At the same time seeing Ginny nursing or in just a bra or talking about breasts really turned Harry on; he was almost ashamed by how much it turned him on, not that he wanted to do anything while she was nursing, that would be gross, but that she was a woman. She was a beautiful woman.

Harry was also sure Ginny knew what she was doing to Harry. What Harry did not know was that Molly had always been a firm believer that breast feeding was by far the best way to feed infants, not just because of the breast milk but also because of the closeness of the infant/mother bond, and Molly was going to have an almost impossible task of trying to convince herself that she should tell Ginny to stop. Ginny was winning this round; she was the primary caregiver of Teddy for the time being. Teddy being Harry’s godson, she had moved the Harry/Ginny pairing closer as well.

Harry found some shabby shorts (everything he had was shabby at this point) and changed out of his jeans. He stripped until he was naked to his waist. Then he sat on Ginny’s bed next to Teddy, and she sat on the bed next to him, no robes just her short pants and nursing bra. Ginny put some more lotion on Harry’s many scars. They covered themselves with a blanket and held each other for about 45 minutes, neither talking they were just so mentally exhausted, when Teddy woke up. Ginny told Harry to change Teddy, and when he was finished she told Harry to sit back on the bed. She then sat with her back to Harry and summoning the blanket covered the three of them. She nurse Teddy, settling back with an utterly satisfied look on her face. When she was done Harry changed Teddy and put him down to bed.

Ginny then told Harry it was his turn, pulled the blanket back over her and put one of Harry’s hands on her breast. Ginny knew she was driving Harry crazy. For his part it felt so good to be touching Ginny, and she was enjoying it so much, it was going to be very hard to stop. When they heard Ron and Hermione coming they stopped, and crawled into their own beds.

Hermione had everyone get up. She then re-arraigned furniture in the room, to give everyone their own bed. Right next to the door there were the twin beds of Hermione and Ron, with Hermione next to the door so someone could wake her up for housing without disturbing the rest of the people. Then you had a bigger bed for Arthur and Molly, and right next to that, touching it, was a smaller single bed for Andromeda. Then you had Teddy’s crib, then the twin beds for Ginny and Harry. Then you had twin beds for Charlie and Percy, then 3 beds next to each other with Lee Jordan, then George, then next to the door Angelina Johnson. That way Angelina and George could get into and out of bed for the night shift without disturbing anyone, as could Lee. It was looking like George and Angelina were going to be covering 9:00 PM until 2:00 AM, and Lee and Charlie were going to be covering 2:00 AM until 7:00 AM.

Once the room was finished Harry and Ginny did their best to go to sleep, each thoroughly turned on by the snogging and petting of the evening.

I would be thrilled if someone could do a better job with Mrs. Carrow, with a Cockney accent maybe. I’m not proud. It’s my story, but I will gladly incorporate any improvements that someone can suggest, if I feel they make the story better.